As a landmark report highlighted that nearly 2,000 species have been lost from Yorkshire in the last 200 years, and another 3,000 are at risk, Alexandra Wood spoke to wildlife experts about what we can do to help.

Roadside verges say a lot about the state of nature in Yorkshire. Take a closer look and you’ll find many that are overgrown and rank with grass, cow parsley, docks and not a lot else. Verges which are apparently bursting with life on closer inspection often have little variety.

That is because they are getting “a continuous rain of fertiliser”, which includes nitrates formed from car and truck exhaust gases, ammonia from places like intensive pig farms, says Professor Alastair Fitter, who contributed to this week’s ground-breaking State of Yorkshire’s Nature report, published by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Prof Fitter, a trustee both at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Yorkshire Naturalist’s Union, says the rate at which land is being fertilised for free is about the same as farmers would have used pre World War Two on their fields.